


Gunpowder Phoenix

by palomino333



Category: L.A. Noire
Genre: Gen, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, World War I, World War II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-19
Updated: 2015-03-19
Packaged: 2018-03-18 15:10:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3574286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/palomino333/pseuds/palomino333
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for a flash fiction challenge: Long Life. "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it." - George Santayana. Herschel Biggs investigates a routine arson case on the day the United States officially enters World War II.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gunpowder Phoenix

They called it the war to end all wars.

Herschel balled the newspaper roughly in his hands before throwing it into the wastebasket. The paper was left to scream "US DECLARES WAR" to no one.

Columbia graced American walls again, as did Uncle Sam, the radio shrieking for the boys to march dutifully off to war once more. While Flash Gordon shot baddies with a blaster, boys barely out of high school were given big toys to play with.

Lynch solemnly greeted him as he stepped out of the car. The remains of an old maid who kept to herself, were laid out in the front lawn. A broken picture frame lay on the living room floor, the image of a young solider in a doughboy helmet, singed at the bottom, staring sternly back at Herschel from near his foot. A tragedy, her neighbors would say, that she and her house were lost. These things just didn't happen.

XXXXXX

Coughing at the rain of ashes that fell into his nose and mouth, Biggs cradled his friend's body close. He knew it was useless; Winters was dead, having suffocated in his arms, but it felt so wrong to simply leave him lying there. He cringed back when what remained of the barn door crashed down, Winters's limp body dropping to the floor with a sickening crack.

"St-stay back! I'm warning you!" Biggs snapped, his rifle rattling in his hands.

"Calm down, soldier!" A sharp command answered him. "We're here to get you out!"

"Stay back! You won't kill me, too!" He exclaimed hysterically.

The shadows only moved closer, and he inched further back, tumbling down over a limp body and smacking his back against the floor. The shadows swarmed over him, and eyes he didn't recognize stared down into him. He hit at their groping hands with his rifle a few times until that was yanked from him. He swung his fists, but there were caught and held tight over his head. He got in a few kicks before his legs were also seized. Throwing his head back, he let out a howl of aggravation and despair before the shadows overwhelmed him.

XXXXXX

"Lois and I are worried, the boy's of that age."

Herschel passed the detectives quietly, much akin to a wandering shade.

Dumping the file out on his desk, he picked up a photo taken of the charred remains of an overturned plant pot. The broad had forgotten to properly water it.

The gasping breath of a secretary sounded as she ran by his office, and car honks and screams of fear at the uncertain future filtered in through the window.

Here sat an old codger, a relic of times past, investigating the death of an old woman no one cared about while the world headed full throttle into another "war to end all wars."

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt was in tribute to Leonard Nimoy, hence the sci-fi references to Flash Gordon and Superman (Lois as in Lois Lane). Phoenix motif was lifted from Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451.
> 
> Length: 474 words


End file.
